<h4>Chapter 300: Frenzied Sword’s First Fight</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>As Studios <strong>Editor: </strong>As Studios


    Out of the three main ss change trees for the Mechanic ss, Cannon Master was the most popr among the yers. It served as a reliable ranged attacker. Mechanics and Mechanical Pugilists, due to the early stage of the game, were still quite awkward in a fight. There were close to zero contestants with those two sses.


    Mechanics were definitely out of the question, especially when they were a yer and did not have ess to a vast number of resources that Han Xiao had. Without paying to win, the Mechanics’bat strength was nothing impressive.


    Mechanical Pugilists, at this point in the game, were like a weaker version of the normal Pugilists. Moreover, they even had to repair their tools every time the durability ran out. A Pugilist would serve the role of a meat shield much better.


    Han Xiao did not agree with this meta. Mechanical Pugilists were actually already pretty strong in Version 1.0. As long as they did not have awful gear, they could easily be both a tank and an attacker. They would also adapt to different environments much easier due to the variety of their equipment. However, the Mechanical Pugilist ss did have a higher skill cap then Pugilists as they also had to control their machinery.


    Thebination of need for good equipment and harder controls meant that there were barely any who chose to y as a Mechanical Pugilist.


    Although the Mechanics were quite useful in group matches, they performed poorly in individual battles. yers of the other two sses would often consider themselves lucky if they came up against a Mechanic.


    After nearly a thousand elimination rounds, Mechanics had already been defeated sixty-four times, while they had only won eleven times!


    Many of the yers on the forums had alreadye to the consensus that Mechanics were not suitable for PVP. After watching several fights himself, Han Xiao understood that, as the Mechanic was a ss that would take longer to develop, and also due to the ss’s demand for skillful controls, it was not a ss that suited the PVP scene this early on in the game.


    Moreover, most the equipment that the Mechanics made was not high level enough to actually make much of a difference in a fight, especially not when other sses also had ess to basic equipment.


    The Mechanic ss was heavily reliant on the yer’s equipment, and as new versions of the game were released, yers would gain ess to better equipment and also reveal the strength of the ss.


    Today was Frenzied Sword’s first time fighting in the tournament. The opponent that he drew against was an Esper. Han Xiao was watching this fight live.


    Frenzied Sword was a Mechanical Pugilist and had received a bunch of ‘benefits’ from Han Xiao—well, gear that he did not need anymore. Frenzied Sword was wearing the Maically-Controlled Retractable Armor and also had the Heavy Mechanical Arm attached to his arm. He had also brought with him lots of other spare parts and gadgets, which all hung on his body. He was fully d in metal, and he gave off a cold glint under the sun, looking like a heavily armored knight.


    The opponent was an ice-type Esper. With the wave of his hand, he instantly covered the tform with a thinyer of ice, reducing Frenzied Sword’s movement speed while increasing his own.


    The Esper was a kiting yer, and he then took out an enhanced Assault Rifle and started firing at Frenzied Sword, causing a shower of sparks to burst on Frenzied Sword’s armor.


    “Ice abilitiesbined with ranged weapons is indeed a goodbo to kite with.” Han Xiao nodded.


    Firearms and other equipment were avable to yers of all sses, but without the Mechanic’s Machinery Affinity, they could only dish out the base damage with those weapons.


    Frenzied Sword moved across the ice as he tried to avoid the spray of bullets. He had very good armor on, so the Assault Rifle was not much of a threat to him. However, the Esper yer nned to keep on kiting and slowly whittle down Frenzied Sword’s HP.


    Bulletsnded one after another on the heavy armor, but they suddenly stopped. The Esper had run out of ammo. Just as he was trying to reload, Frenzied Sword took this opportunity and leapt forward with the help of the booster on his legs. His legs exploded off the ground and scattered the ice surface that he was standing on.


    Frenzied Sword flew through the air and rapidly closed in on the Esper.


    The Esper yer hurriedly threw away his Assault Rifle and took off a grenadeuncher from his back, immediately firing a shot at Frenzied Sword in midair.


    Boom!


    An explosion urred where Frenzied Sword was, causing a bright sh of light, followed by a cloud of dust that rolled across the tform.


    A sound of gears locking into ce suddenly came from within the smoke, and a thin metal cable shot out andtched to the Esper yer before it rapidly pulled him back to Frenzied Sword.


    Bang!


    The two shed into each other and rolled around on the ground due to the impact. Meleebat was Frenzied Sword’s strong suit, and he quickly took care of the Esper after a few exchanging blows.


    “Smoke to reduce visibility and increase the hit-chance of the hook.” Han Xiao nodded. He had focused on every single detail in the battle. Frenzied Sword was able to use the Mechanical Pugilist’s abilities and equipment to a pretty good level, and he could be counted as one of the rarer Mechanic yers.


    Currently, no single yer had reached the point where they werepletely invincible. All sses had weaknesses that could be taken advantage of. In the case of the ice-type Esper, Mechanical Pugilists could use their equipment to close in the distance, Pugilists could use Energy Burst or other movement skills, while other Espers also had their own tactics to use.


    ...


    As he was not popr yet, Frenzied Sword’s victory did not garner much attention. Moreover, it was only an elimination round. However, Han Xiao thought that Frenzied Sword had shown a ster performance in that fight. He just did not know if this Frenzied Sword was as good as the one in the past.


    yers from around the went all out in the fights, and soon, twenty days had passed. Eighty to ny percent of the yers had been eliminated, and the ones left behind were the cream of the crop.


    Frenzied Sword had passed hurdle after hurdle and had not lost a single match up to this point, so more people were starting to pay attention to him. There was an extremely small number of Mechanics who had made it that far into tournament. So, naturally, as a Mechanical Pugilist, Frenzied Sword piqued the interest of many curious yers. Most of his earlier matches were reyed by yers.


    “Is this how Mechanical Pugilists fight? He seems to bring along a lot of equipment. It looks kind ofplicated.”


    “Thatbo he did with multiple weapons and gadgets looked really cool, but it seems pretty hard to pull off.”


    “What’s so great about this? He just has a lot of good gear. Take away all that equipment and let’s see if he can still beat a Pugilist.”


    “Bruh... why would a Mechanical Pugilist fight with their bare body for no reason?”


    The forums were filled with different opinions, but overall, Frenzied Sword had finally made a name for himself. In a tournament filled with Pugilists and Espers, his Mechanical Pugilist ss was a breath of fresh air.


    However, Frenzied Sword’s rising poprity was nothingpared to the current talk-of-the-town, Hao Tian.


    As a pro yer from Long Sky, Hao Tian had sted through all his opponents since the first round, and he seemed to be getting stronger and stronger after each fight. His battle team was also taking win after win in the team matches section. Hao Tian seemed like a potential candidate who could carry the future of the Chinese e-sports scene.


    Aside from the three core members, none of the other Long Sky yers were anything to scoff at. They had great team fights and were able to effectivelyplement Hao Tian’s aggressive ystyle.


    On the other hand, the pro yers from the other gaming guilds seemed to be hiding their strength, so they were not sting through all opposition like Long Sky.


    Long Sky yers demonstrated an overwhelming momentum in both solo and team matches, and they were the yer favorite on Aquamarine. Many video streaming channels were also focused on highlighting these yers.


    Bun-hit-dog’s ‘Suicide Hosts’ team had been eliminated in a single round. Han Xiao randomly watched their match, and his eyes almost burst out of their sockets.


    All six members were Cannon Masters. It was a pure ranged DPS teamposition... yet they were unluckily ced in a dense forest that did not favor ranged sses at all.


    To make it worse, their opponent was a powerhouse team made up of foreign pro yers.


    They were butchered.


    Although Han Xiao knew that they did not have much of a chance in this tournament to begin with, he was still speechless at how bad their luck was.


    <i>It seems like Hao Tian has the best chance of getting a good score. Frenzied Sword’s performing well in his solo matches, but his team’s performance is rather subpar, and they’re barely surviving in the tournament...</i>